Chapter Summaries

Jiang Mi, a reincarnated servant with no spiritual roots, finally obtained a golden Simulator trait after years of useless rewards. She realized it might let her acquire a spiritual-root trait and began preparing to run her first simulation.

• Jiang Mi recalled how she had been reincarnated into a poor family and sold to the Marquis's Household, where she had labored as a servant for years.
• Jiang Mi chopped the Divine Tree and discovered that she had obtained the golden Simulator trait.
• Jiang Mi read that simulations could grant her everything she acquired except physical objects, and she considered using one to obtain a spiritual-root trait.
• Jiang Mi carried firewood to the east courtyard and, once alone, prepared to start a simulation, knowing the Simulator had to occupy one of her three trait slots.

Jiang Mi began her first simulation as a maid in the Dingbei Marquis Manor and tried to survive by staying unnoticed. She discovered that two kitchen women were secretly placing something beneath the maids’ pillows, leaving her tense and unsure what would happen next.

• Jiang Mi equipped Thick-Skinned and Chickens and Ducks Can't Understand Each Other before starting her first simulation.
• The simulation described Jiang Mi’s life as a sixteen-year-old maid and her plan to stay alive as long as possible.
• Jiang Mi overheard Zhou Pozi and Li Pozi say they had to kill the maids to survive.
• Jiang Mi recognized the two women and pretended to sleep as they entered the room and placed something beside each maid’s pillow.
• Bichun startled Zhou Pozi while she was near Jiang Mi, but Zhou Pozi tucked the item beneath Jiang Mi’s pillow before leaving.

Jiang Mi realized Old Woman Zhou and Old Woman Li had planted stolen jade in her room to frame the maids, and she chose to hide it before anyone searched. She concealed all three pieces in a deep tunnel in Mother Rat’s hole, leaving the threat of discovery unresolved.

• Jiang Mi understood the rooster’s warning that Old Woman Zhou and Old Woman Li had stolen silver and hidden something nearby.
• Jiang Mi rejected throwing away or returning the jade, fearing discovery and punishment for everyone sharing her room.
• Jiang Mi chose to hide the three pieces of jade rather than leave them beneath the maids’ pillows.
• Jiang Mi hid the jade in the deepest branch of Mother Rat’s hole and blocked the tunnel with a stone.

Jiang Mi’s simulation showed her surviving a false theft accusation, moving into the kitchen, and gradually improving her position in the manor. When the nanny offered to take her as a goddaughter, Jiang Mi accepted, leaving their new relationship in place.

• The nanny searched the maids’ room after Zhou Pozi accused them of stealing, found nothing, and had Zhou Pozi and Li Pozi dragged away.
• After the nanny was promoted to manage the kitchen, Jiang Mi accepted the kitchen odd-job position when the other maids declined.
• Jiang Mi hid her jade and settled into kitchen work, later receiving ten taels of silver after the marchioness gave birth to an heir.
• Years later, the nanny took Jiang Mi’s hand and proposed making her a goddaughter.
• Jiang Mi chose to accept, and the delighted nanny welcomed her as her goddaughter.

After the Marquis of Dingbei and the madam died, the narrator lived peacefully in the manor under the nanny’s protection until she was ordered to flee with the nanny’s savings and her indenture. She escaped across the river to Liu Family Ferry and found herself free, with enough money to begin a new life.

• The Marquis of Dingbei died in battle, and the grieving madam soon died as well.
• The nanny helped oversee the funeral, and the child marquis inherited the title the following year.
• When the narrator was thirty, the nanny gave her valuables and her indenture and told her to flee that night.
• Old Chen led the narrator out through the rear gate and directed her to a ferry where a boatman carried her across the river.
• The narrator reached Liu Family Ferry, rented a room, and found money, clothes, and her indenture in the bundle.

Jiang Mi settled in Liu Family Ferry and chose to study both letters and martial arts. She paid for a lifetime apprenticeship at the Changfeng Martial Arts School, where Liu Bai taught her the Changfeng Fist, but Jiang Mi struggled with the training.

• Jiang Mi rented a small house in Liu Family Ferry and decided to learn both letters and martial arts.
• Jiang Mi joined the Changfeng Martial Arts School after Liu Bai demonstrated the power of the Changfeng Fist by destroying a stone lion.
• Jiang Mi paid Liu Daye twenty taels for a lifetime apprenticeship and discovered that Liu Bai, not Liu Daye, taught the students.
• Liu Bai taught Jiang Mi the Changfeng Fist and explained that martial artists without Spirit Roots could develop force but faced strict limits.
• Jiang Mi practiced day and night, though her age and poor martial talent made progress difficult.

After decades of hard work, Jiang Mi helped Liu Bai keep the Changfeng Martial Arts School open and lived quietly as its honorary elder. At sixty-seven, she finally drew a green trait: a Trash Spiritual Root that let her cultivate.

• Jiang Mi learned that Nanny had died after sending her away from the Marquis's Household, and she erected a cenotaph for Rong Shi.
• When Liu Bai told Jiang Mi that the Changfeng Martial Arts School was about to close, Jiang Mi took charge of recruiting students and brought in seven for a free trial.
• Jiang Mi's sales efforts revived the school, and she later became its honorary elder while Liu Bai passed the headship to her eldest disciple.
• After receiving only white traits for decades, Jiang Mi finally drew a green trait at age sixty-seven: the Trash Spiritual Root, which allowed her to cultivate.

Jiang Mi traveled with Liu Bai to Gathered Worthies Manor to buy cultivation arts, and Liu Bai gave her the savings she needed to afford both an internal and an external art. After studying the booklets at the inn, Jiang Mi received a new green trait from the simulator.

• Jiang Mi decided to pawn three pieces of jade and ask Liu Bai to accompany her to Gathered Worthies Manor.
• Jiang Mi and Liu Bai traveled north for a year, enduring the hardships of the troubled times along the way.
• At Gathered Worthies Manor, Jiang Mi found that cultivation arts cost more than she could afford with her remaining silver.
• Liu Bai gave Jiang Mi two hundred-tael banknotes from her private savings, allowing Jiang Mi to buy the Qi Guiding Art and Qi-Nourishing Art for seven hundred taels.
• Jiang Mi read and memorized both arts at the inn while Liu Bai slept next door.
• Jiang Mi tapped the refreshed tree-chopping opportunity and gained the green Sandbag-sized fists trait.

After dying in her first simulation, Jiang Mi gained a spiritual root and martial strength, then used her new abilities to avoid the matron’s slap and investigate the jade that had led to her death. She began a second simulation as a low-tier martial artist, ready to cultivate.

• Jiang Mi received the first simulation’s rewards, equipped the useless spiritual root, and chose not to slap the matron for the guidance quest.
• When the matron tried to slap her, Jiang Mi caught and blocked her hands, then let go and returned to stacking firewood.
• Jiang Mi reflected on her simulated memories and suspected the fine piece of jade marked “Trace” had caused the assassins to target her.
• After Zhou Pozi and Li Pozi left, Jiang Mi took three pieces of jade, kept the finest one, and submitted the other two to the simulator for an attempt and silver.
• Jiang Mi started her second simulation as a sixteen-year-old low-tier martial artist and sat down to cultivate.

After years of struggling to cultivate with her crippled spirit root, the maid finally reached the Houtian First Layer and revealed her spirit root to the matron. The matron celebrated the news and promised to arrange her escape from the marquis’s manor within a month.

• The maid decided to hide her spirit root and seek a chance to leave the marquis’s manor and join an immortal sect.
• Over three years, she cultivated nightly while working in the kitchen and won the matron’s affection until the matron acknowledged her as her goddaughter.
• In her fourth year, at nineteen, the maid finally tempered her body with spiritual energy and entered the Houtian First Layer.
• The maid revealed her spirit root to the matron and demonstrated her strength by smashing a brick with her palm.
• The matron praised the maid, said she had been right to keep her spirit root secret, and promised to send her out of the manor within a month.

Jiang Mi reached Green Bamboo Sect seeking a master and was welcomed as a promising junior sister by the sect leader. Though the sect seemed to lack cultivation resources, the leader gave Jiang Mi its Qi Guiding Art, leaving her with a path to cultivate.

• Jiang Mi left the estate with Chen San and traveled toward Green Bamboo Sect, determined to return and save Nanny before disaster struck.
• Jiang Mi reached Green Bamboo Mountain after defeating two groups of highway robbers along the way.
• Qing Yun and the sect leader welcomed Jiang Mi as a junior sister after learning she was nineteen, an Acquired martial artist, and had never studied under a master.
• Jiang Mi discovered Green Bamboo Sect had almost no cultivation resources or manuals, and its two other disciples had made little progress.
• The sect leader brought out a chest of cultivation booklets and gave Jiang Mi the tattered Qi Guiding Art.

Jiang Mi spent years cultivating under the Green Bamboo Sect’s care, reaching the Houtian Fourth Stage while realizing she had never been taught martial techniques or combat. When she tried to leave to visit her godmother, the sect leader and her senior brothers reacted with chilling silence, making her suspect the sect would not let her go.

• The sect leader gave Jiang Mi the Azure Wood Art and Qi Guiding Art, then entrusted her with the Green Bamboo Formula after three months of cultivation.
• Jiang Mi settled into the sect, where Qing Yun, Qingfeng, and the sect leader cared for her as she trained and helped around the sect.
• At twenty, Jiang Mi reached the Houtian Second Stage and gained the green trait Abundant Qi and Blood; at twenty-two, she reached the Houtian Third Stage and gained Lightness.
• At twenty-eight, Jiang Mi reached the Houtian Fourth Stage, and the sect celebrated with a meal she cooked.
• Jiang Mi told the sect leader she wanted to visit her godmother, but the leader and her senior brothers fell silent, prompting Jiang Mi to suspect they would not let her leave.
• Jiang Mi realized that despite years of training and receiving the sect’s central cultivation arts, she had never been taught martial techniques or combat.

Jiang Mi realized the Green Bamboo Sect intended to take her flesh and blood, so she planned to escape. Qing Yun caught her at the mountain gate, but she struck him down, stole his sword and money pouch, and fled into the night.

• Jiang Mi chose to escape the Green Bamboo Sect and waited until the watchful gaze on her disappeared.
• Jiang Mi sneaked toward the mountain gate at night, planning to reach the capital and rescue her nanny.
• Qing Yun intercepted Jiang Mi and urged her to return, revealing the sect wanted her flesh and blood.
• Jiang Mi surprised Qing Yun with a Changfeng Fist punch that sent him crashing into a tree.
• Jiang Mi took Qing Yun's longsword and money pouch, thanked him, and ran off into the night.

Rong Mi returned to the capital and learned that Nanny had been beaten and cast out of the Dingbei Marquis Manor. She found Nanny dead in a ruined temple and carried her body into the city streets.

• Rong Mi discovered Azure Frost and six low-grade spirit stones in Qing Yun's belongings before continuing to the capital.
• Rong Mi entered the capital under her nanny's surname and overheard men discussing a steward named Rong who had been thrown out of Dingbei Marquis Manor.
• Rong Mi learned that the steward was Nanny and hurried to the ruined temple in Willow-Branch Alley.
• Rong Mi found Nanny dead, and a beggar told her that Nanny had repeatedly said, “Little Mi, don't come back.”
• Rong Mi carried Nanny out of the temple and through the capital's main streets.

After burying Nanny, Jiang Mi chose to postpone revenge and build her strength, then traveled to Gathered Worthies Manor to earn money as a beast hunter. Over the next five years, she became a renowned member of a hunting team in the Gathering Worthies Hall.

• Jiang Mi chose to cultivate before seeking revenge for Nanny, returned to the capital to repay the beggar who had shared Nanny’s last words, and then headed north.
• Jiang Mi reached Gathered Worthies Manor and registered at the Gathering Worthies Hall under the false name Rong Mi, claiming Houtian Fourth Stage cultivation and skill in fist techniques.
• Jiang Mi joined Old Zhou’s team with a burly fist fighter and an elderly woman scout to hunt an Ironback Bear at Severed Dragon Ridge.
• Jiang Mi followed her teammates’ instructions during the hunt, survived the expedition, and agreed to hunt with them again.
• Jiang Mi spent five years hunting alongside Old Li and the old woman, using Changfeng Fist to make a name for herself in the Gathering Worthies Hall.

Over five years, you hunted demonic beasts with Old Li and the old woman, learned of the deadly Evergreen Art, and continued living as a rogue cultivator. In the eighteenth year, a wealthy young man arrived at your room looking to hire the trio for dangerous work.

• You, Old Li, and the old woman spent five years hunting demonic beasts, and the old woman gave you the Cloud-Treading Crossing after Old Li recovered from a near-fatal injury.
• You bought a copy of the Evergreen Art and discovered that it resembled an incomplete fragment of the Azure Wood Art.
• Old Li warned you that the Evergreen Art had caused a rogue cultivator to vanish amid blood and the smell of cooked meat, so you returned to the Qi Guiding Formula and Qi-Nourishing Art.
• In the eighteenth year, a wealthy young man entered your room and asked whether you, Old Li, and the old woman specialized in dangerous jobs.
• The young man mocked your watery noodles as he looked over the three of you.

Zuo Yunchi hired the narrator, Old Li, and the old woman for eight thousand taels to hunt an entire den of Azure-Patterned Leopards. After learning of the danger, the narrator proposed stealing the cubs while the adults were away foraging.

• Zuo Yunchi offered the trio eight thousand taels to kill a den of Azure-Patterned Leopards so he could make a pelt gift for his mother.
• Old Li accepted the job, and Zuo Yunchi left two thousand taels as a deposit before warning them not to run off with it.
• Old Li explained that Zuo Yunchi belonged to the powerful Capital Zuo Household, which controlled much of Great Xia’s spirit-stone trade.
• The old woman asked how they would handle the job, and the narrator said they should avoid fighting the leopards directly.
• The narrator proposed sneaking into the den while the adult leopards were foraging and taking their cubs.

Xiao Rong and Old Li and Old Woman lured the Azure-Patterned Leopards into traps and killed three, but Old Li turned on Xiao Rong and revealed he planned to claim the bounty and sell the cubs. Xiao Rong faked her death with Cloud-Treading Crossing, while Old Woman ordered Old Li to skin the leopards and turn in the job.

• Xiao Rong, Old Li, and Old Woman found the Azure-Patterned Leopards' den, stole six cubs, and used them to lure the adults into traps.
• The group killed three Azure-Patterned Leopards, then set an ambush for the last one at dusk.
• Xiao Rong severed the last leopard's hind leg as Old Li attacked it, but Old Li's Mountain-Suppressing Fist appeared to strike Xiao Rong instead.
• Xiao Rong used Cloud-Treading Crossing to evade the punch and pretended to be dead while Old Li explained that he intended to keep her share of the bounty and cub-sale money.
• Old Woman told Old Li to skin the leopards and turn in the job, and he praised her for understanding.

Jiang Mi killed Old Li after he tried to betray her, then received a new healing trait and prepared to leave Gathered Worthies Manor. She parted from Old Woman and headed for Liu Family Ferry to cultivate.

• Jiang Mi stabbed Old Li with the Azure Frost Sword after he tried to kill her and take a larger share of the reward.
• Jiang Mi and Old Woman collected the remaining payment and sold the Azure-Patterned Leopard cub, giving Jiang Mi seven thousand taels of silver.
• Jiang Mi gained the purple trait Endless Vitality, which slowly healed injuries and purged poison.
• Old Woman gave Jiang Mi four low-grade spirit stones and told her she could seek her out at Gathered Worthies Manor or head east and mention a woman surnamed Zhou.
• Jiang Mi left Gathered Worthies Manor and chose Liu Family Ferry as a safe place to cultivate.

Jiang Mi visited the Peerless National Arts Pavilion in the capital to find a sword art and discovered an incomplete manual that resembled her Cloud-Treading Crossing. She rejected it as a poor purchase and continued browsing the pavilion’s other sword arts.

• Jiang Mi returned to Liu Family Ferry, settled into her residence, and traveled to the capital to visit Nanny’s grave and buy cultivation herbs and martial techniques.
• Jiang Mi entered the Peerless National Arts Pavilion and learned from an attendant how its nine floors and spirit-stone prices were organized.
• Jiang Mi asked the second-floor steward for a sword art that was easy to learn but powerful, and he showed her three samples.
• Jiang Mi noticed the dusty, incomplete Crescent Moon Sword Art and found that its qi circulation resembled Cloud-Treading Crossing.
• The steward offered Crescent Moon Sword Art for eight spirit stones, but Jiang Mi declined and spent nearly an hour examining the other sword arts.